Survivin gene polymorphism association with tongue squamous cell carcinoma.

ABSTRACT

SUBJECT Survivin expression is correlated with tumor aggressiveness and severity in head and neck carcinoma. A polymorphism at position -31 (G/C) (rs 9904341) has been associated with cancer risk in several studies. We evaluated the correlation of this polymorphism with clinical manifestation of patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in an Irananian population. METHODS: Paraffin-embedded tissue sections from patients with tongue SCC (n=91) were evaluated for association between the survivin -31 (G/C) polymorphism and tumor staging, pathological grade, lymph node metastasis, tumor size, and recurrence of tumor. RESULTS: There was a significant increase of presence of allele C in patients who were at stages III and IV compared to patients with lower stages [GC+CC vs. GG, p=0.025, odds ratio [OR] 2.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.03-7.4]). In addition, presence of allele C was significantly decreased in patients with T1 tumor size compared to patients with larger tumor size (p=0.03, OR 0.6, 95% CI [0.2-2.03]). CONCLUSION: Presence of the C allele was significantly associated with tumor stage and size; therefore, survivin might be an important marker in the prognosis of tongue SCC that requires further investigation.